Bitter Days
by Colorslander
Summary: Some days just aren’t your day, this one happens not to be Riku’s. Can anything help her spirit’s rise? Daisuke x Riku Warning: Unnecessary amounts of fluff.


Bitter Days

Silent Shadow

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A/N: Shameless, pointless RikuxDaisuke story. Not enough fanfictions about them. ;_;. Anyway this is a tad out of season but I felt the need to write it.

"I feel like crap," Riku stared blandly at the oval mirror for the moment, "I look like crap."

Frustrated she ran her hand through her short red, brown hair. She had always kept it short thinking that it was easier to keep. It was still a pain in the butt though; she could never keep that one strand from sticking out.

"Maybe I can become bald," she mused as she hastily tied her hair in a small ponytail. That would do for now.

"Bald Riku-chan? That wouldn't attract Niwa-kun at all," her sister, Risa said pulling on her hair like a kid. Riku snorted and brushed Risa's hand away.

"Wouldn't you be disappointed?" she said wryly.

"Why of course," Risa said putting her head on Riku's shoulders, "I only care for my dear sister's welfare."

"Bull."

Risa pretend to look hurt and collapsed on the floor dramatically clutching her heart; "You wound me, dear sister."

"What have you eaten today?" Riku said annoyed, "You are acting more like a child then usual."

Risa grinned like a cat, "Have you forgotten Riku?"

Riku turned her attention back to the mirror looking disdainfully at her figure, "Forgotten what?"

Risa looked she was about to have a heart attack and grabbed Riku by the neck and dragged her from the bathroom to their shared room and threw her on the floor.

"What are you doing?" Riku asked rubbing her neck, Risa might be petite but she was sure strong when she wanted to. Risa then began to tear up her room looking for something.

"You know if you weren't such a slob, Riku, this would be so much easier," Risa said digging through her large pile of clothing.

"You aren't the neatest person in the world either," Riku replied as she moved the stacks of _Asuka_ comics and boy band magazines out of the way, "Top ten ways to get the bishonen of your dreams to notice you…"

"Oh I was looking for that," Risa said snatching the magazine out of Riku's hand and then began the search again.

"Ah ha!" Risa pulled out in triumph a small palm-pilot and flipped it open.

"Father spoils you too much," Riku said staring at it behind Risa's shoulder. Risa then pulled up the calendar.

"February 14," it read.

"No…"

"Oh yes," she smiled and pulled out a small heart-shaped package and proudly said, "I made my own chocolates for the guy I like."

"To Dark-sama" she looked at Risa with her brow raised, "such formal words for such a trashy of a man."

"Dark is not trashy," she began to blush and she put her hands to her face, "he is the most wonderful man ever to walk this earth!"

"If by wonderful you mean a perverted thief, then I would agree with you," Riku frowned, "I didn't get anything for Daisuke."

"Should have planned ahead," she grinned and took out a piece of chocolate, "Want to taste test?"

"No thanks, I've eaten your food before," she said waving it away, she was too depressed to eat.

"I've been practicing," Risa scowled, "Besides Niwa-kun seems to like my food."

Riku decided not to tell her that Niwa-kun was too polite to say that she was bad. Instead she shrugged and said, "What ever you say."

"At least I got him something," she retorted, "What kind of girlfriend forgets Valentines Day? I'm surprised he will get you anything for White's Day later. I guess this proves I will become the better girlfriend."

"If you had a boyfriend," she began to retaliate but then went to obsessing about Valentines Day, "What am I going to do!"

Risa's face soften a bit. Sisterly rivalry was put on the back burner for a second, Risa gently gripped her shoulders, "You are such a worry-wart. Always nervous about something, Riku-chan. It's Saturday, after school you can go find some chocolate since we have no studies."

"But..."

"If you keep talking Riku-chan we are going to be late. Momma will kill us," she said cheerfully pulling on her arm, dragging Riku out of the house in a hurry.

"Ack Risa! I'm not ready yet, I haven't even packed my bag!" she said trying to run back in the house.

"Hello Harada-san!" Daisuke's normal cheerful voice rang high, greeting Risa's younger twin. Riku quickly busied herself in her small locker, hoping he might have missed her.

"Hello Riku!" Daisuke smiled expecting a warm greeting from his girlfriend.

Riku had a tendency to speak louder then usual when she was nervous, this was no exception. "Oh! Hello Daisuke! I'm really busy so I uh-!"

"Niwa-kun," Risa latched onto a surprised Daisuke's arm and lead him away from Riku, "I need some help… You see I have these chocolates and I need to give them to Dark."

Riku sighed closing her locker, '_For once I am grateful for Risa'_

She turned to walk away when she bumped into a silent and mysterious figure.

"Oh sorry Hiwitari-san," she apologized to the blue haired boy. 

He stood their coolly and then asked, "Do you know where Niwa is?"

"Niwa-kun? Yes he went to class with my sister, Risa. Why?"

He didn't answer but he thanked her and went on his way. She noticed some girl's trying to give him chocolate but he ignored them. Riku frowned. She knew that he would never accept chocolate from anyone but he was holding a small box of one.

A thought stuck her, "Could it be for someone. No that's silly- you only give chocolates to boys today, so he can't be giving it. Unless… does he like Niwa-kun?"

She stared blankly at Satoshi dumbfounded and maybe even a little scared. She didn't want a high profile guy like Satoshi as her competition. This day wasn't getting any better.

"You know, banging on your head repeatedly on the wall is suppose to be bad for your skin," Takeshi said followed by his loyal blond haired companion.

Riku growled smacking him on the head, "You know you are a really big pest. And why are you carrying around the camera?"

"Dad said I needed to clean up my video skills so here I am," he leaned in, "You look great on film Riku-chan! I think you need a close up."

"Takeshi you idiot, I am not in the mood," she said crossing her arms.

"Aww don't be a spoilsport Riku," he said zooming in, "Hey do you know you have a hair sticking up?"

It only took one smack to send Takeshi flying outside the second story window.

"Oh that's got to hurt," replied Takeshi's friend looking outside the window wincing, "At least he saved his camera."

"He'll be alright," said a spectator, "He's got a hard head."

Riku sighed and walked away quickly from the crime scene trying to smooth her hair down, this wasn't going to be a good day.

The bell rang shrilly signifying the end of school. Riku groaned, Valentines was the worst day ever. Sensei, being the weird lady she was, was elated to have Takeshi film the whole class and spent most of the time posing for the camera.

Since it was Valentines Day they spent the whole English lesson on learning about love, marriage, and the such. It was especially embarrassing when Sensei had asked her to read aloud a mock 'love-letter' to a mock boyfriend. This caused a few giggles in the class since they knew she was going out with Daisuke, and she stuttered so much that when she was finished she was about to throw herself out of the window.

It was certainly was a very favorable alternative then facing Daisuke-kun without a present.

Which was another thing that made her day even worse, her trying to avoid him. She made up every excuse in the book not to be with him, which looked like it hurt him a lot. She never meant to hurt his feelings, she just couldn't talk to him.

Great now she felt like, acted like, and looked like crap. She unconsciously ran her hand through her hair, how did Risa do it?

"Riku wait up!" Riku froze. Daisuke ran wildly to catch up with her.

"Oh hi Daisuke! What do you want?!" she said loudly, sweating slightly '_Heh…heh…'_

"I was just wondering if you wanted to walk home with me?' he asked, rather cutely she might add. He was scratching his head and looked away from her blushing, he always did that he was embarrassed in front of girls. She almost shouted 'yes' and grabbed his arm when she noticed something underneath his arm.

A bag full of candies. Riku's hearts sank, she knew that girls thought Daisuke was cute, but she hadn't really expected them to give him candy. She saw a small neatly made package with no 'from anyone'.

'_It's from Hiwitari…'_

"I'm sorry," she did a quick bow of apology, "But I have to do something important."

Daisuke's eyes flashed with disappointment, "Oh…"

Riku's heart broke so she quickly added, "But if you want I'll meet you at six in the park!" _By six I should have some chocolate._

Daisuke grinned once more making his whole face glow, "Oh, Ok!"

"Bye Daisuke-kun!" she said running off, '_I've got to find a place that sells chocolates. That shouldn't be too hard.'_

Or so she thought…

"What? How can you be out of chocolate? Is that even possible?" Riku's eyes nearly bugged out of her sockets, "This is the largest convenience store around here. You've got to have _something_ chocolate!"

The stock boy looked thoroughly flustered; "It's not only us miss. Everywhere around here is out of chocolate, it seems that everyone was trying to buy it for one specific guy…"

"Dark," she sighed, "That idiot always messes things up for me. I can't believe his the fan girls manage to buy out all the stores."

"Um… miss?" The stock boy was giving her a weird look. Riku blushed, she hadn't realized she was talking to herself.

"Sorry to bother you," she bowed respectively and ran off, '_Great what do I do now?'_

Pause.

'_I guess I can make my own like Risa.'_

Cough.

_'How hard could it be?'_

Blink.

_'I mean, if Risa can do it then I could, right?'_

Riku made her way back to home, a growing sense of doom rising in her stomach. Somehow she doubted this wouldn't end incident free.

She slammed the door to her house. She glanced quickly at the cat shaped clock ticking, '_4:32. I still have time.'_

"Mother!" she called out, "Where is my other half?"

"Eh," her mother smiled, quite tipsy from the wine her father has given her, "Who?"

"Risa, mother."

She giggled her face was pink, "Oh Risa. She went, um. To find um, that Dark man."

"She can't be gone!" Riku began to freak out again, "I need her to help me with cooking."

"I think, um, she has her cookbook somewhere over there," she put her head down on the table before starting to laugh again, her other arm was pointing in the general direction of the counter.

Riku rushed to the counter to see a thick, newly bought cook book. She began to rush though the pages, '_cake, chocolate covered apples_ _eww_, _chocolate covered peanuts, chocolate chip cookies, cookies… wait. What happened to just chocolate?'_ She flipped through the book once again '_she must have ripped out the page with chocolate on it.'_

She slumped in the floor defeated, "How could this day get any worse?"

The cookbook fell off the counter on onto her head. She grumbled rubbing her head in pain and looked at the book, it was opened to brownies.

"Brownies, that's sort of like chocolate,' she murmured picking the book up then peeked at the clock, "4:42."

She scanned over the recipe and a thought popped in her head.

_'What now?'_ cooking was never at the top of Riku's enjoy list, infact she had never baked before. The logical thing to do, of course, was to take out the ingredients. Unsure of what equipment to use she decided to unload the whole pan drawer and dump it on the floor.

"Eggs, milk, flour, backing powder, sugar, shortening…. Wait" She paused, '_What the heck is shortening?'_ She combed through the ingredients and came across a big container, '_Crisco:: American shortening.'_

She opened up the container and made a face at the thick white substance, _'I'm going to put this in food?'_ She looked at the recipe, "3/4 cups"

'_3 out of four cups…that's a lot of shortening, that can't be right. Must be a fraction'._ She looked at the cupboard drawer, '_But how do I know what cup to use?'_ She pondered a minute before she grabbed a medium size mug that looked about right.

"Unsweetened chocolate," she stopped. She remembered her sister using it and dug it out of where she had to placed it after Risa felt she was to good to clean up after her mess.

"Maybe I could just give him this," she decided better of it. She had never tasted unsweetened chocolate before.

"Place all ingredients inside a bowl…" she reread the instructions, '_That's it? There's no order?'_

She shrugged and dumped in everything, "Two cubes of unsweetened chocolate." She dumped it in but for some reason it didn't seem right, but that's what the recipe called for.

"One teaspoon of salt," she looked quite perplexed. What was so different from a regular teaspoon and a spoon? Not by much, she supposed, and dumped a spoonful of salt in.

"Mix until you get a smooth blend with no lumps." She tried the best she could but there was no amount of mixing that could break down the hard chocolate. Then she dumped it into the pan and placed it, gingerly, in the oven.

"Preheat and heat," she frowned whipping her brow dirtied with flour. She wasn't sure what preheat meant, she had an idea but she didn't want to take the chance. Instead she decided perhaps she would leave it in for a few more minutes.

"Five o'clock," she murmured. She might as well try to pass the time. She quickly cleaned up everything up when she heard the door slam.

"Mom, Riku? I'm home!" Risa called out.

"Where were you?" Riku asked when Risa walked into the kitchen. Risa blushed a little.

"Looking for my true love," she simply replied, "why do you ask?"

"I needed your help, I needed to make chocolates," Riku said washing her hands in the sink. Risa smirked.

"You where cooking?"

"At least trying," Riku said frying her hands on the soft towel, "I had no idea what I was doing."

"That would explain the burning smell…"

"Ack!" Riku rushed to the oven and opened the oven she quickly grabbed a towel and took it out.

"Those are weird looking chocolates," Risa said wrinkling her nose.

"Their brownies."

"Then they are some weird looking brownies," she grabbed a fork, "Taste test."

Risa took a bite of the brownie and spit it out immediately, "Are you sure they are brownies? Not poison or something?"

"They can't be that bad Risa!"

"Oh but they are. They almost taste bitter," she ran to the refrigerator and took a big gulp of water right out of the container to wash away the taste.

"But I followed the recipe down to the dot! I mean I burned it a little but other then that…" she flipped through the recipe book again, "I took out the ingredients, put everything in the bowl… beat it a little-"

"Did you melt the chocolate?" Risa asked looking over she shoulder.

"Did I what?"

"Melt the unsweetened chocolate."

Riku frowned, "But it doesn't say to do that it in the book."

"It's common sense," she flicked Riku's head, "at least to those who cook. That would explain the bitter taste"

Riku smacked herself in the head, "I'm such an idiot."

"I'm not arguing that point," Risa said and then brought in a box to put them in, but she stopped before reaching the spatula, "You wouldn't have happened to flour the pan would you?"

"No why?"

Risa sighed and began to try to scrape the 'brownies' off, "Because it's going to real hard to get them off of the pan."

It took a long time and a lot of grunt work but they managed to grate as much as they could off, of course now they didn't look like much of anything anymore.

"Well, it was a good first try," Risa said trying to sound positive, "Care for another. It's only five fifty."

Riku gulped, she had forgotten about the time, "Sorry I have to go Risa!" She grabbed the brownies and took off quickly out of the house.

"That was weird."

'_I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!'_ Risa biked as hard as she could towards the park. The sun had fell behind the trees, darkening the sky to a dusky pink color, and a few stars peaked out of the sky.

From a far distance, she could see Daisuke waiting patiently on the swings, swaying slightly back and forth looking at the sky. He seemed to be deep in thought, maybe even talking to himself.

"Daisuke!" she cried out, she got off her bike, not even caring that it had crashed on the ground, and ran to him.

She tried to say she was sorry but she was panting heavily, taking some rest by leaning on her knees. As soon as she caught her breath she gulped and straitened up.

"I'm really sorry I'm late," she said quickly. Daisuke blinked.

"Late? You made it right on time," he showed her his watch and she stared at it in amazement. She made it to the park in just ten minutes? It was amazing. She shook herself out of the trance.

"Um, I really am sorry I avoided you today," she said not quite looking at his crimson eyes, "But I wanted to make you this Valentines Day! They are… well they are suppose to be brownies." She thrusted the box of brownies at him.

Daisuke brightened, "That's why you didn't talk to me? Well you shouldn't have worried about that, I wouldn't have cared, but thanks anyway."

He opened the box and sweat dropped, "Wow um, looks… good." He brought one up to his mouth.

"No! You shouldn't eat it, they aren't very edible," she said slightly ashamed.

"Don't worry, I'm sure it's just a little burnt," he popped one into his mouth and immediately grimaced and coughed.

Riku twitched slightly, "See? Sorry about that."

He shook his head and swallowed it, "I think it's perfect."

Riku blushed, "You don't have to pretend."

"What makes you think I'm pretending?" he smiled and put his arm around her, looking up, "The suns gone."

She leaned on him, staring at the sky. The dark blanketed to sky, a few stars shone brightly and the moon was a full blaze.

"Thank you."

Daisuke pretended to play stupid, "For what?"

"Everything," she looked at herself, she was a mess. Her arms where full of dough, her clothes had sugar stains on it, and of course, that one strand of hair always sticking up, but she wasn't feeling to bad.

"Hey Daisuke…"

"Yeah?"

She stopped, she hadn't really thought of anything to say, she just wanted to say his name. Out of impulse, she kissed his cheek.

He stared at her wide-eyed holding his cheek, she also stared at him in amazement, and both where as red as his hair. She fought the urge to bury her head in the sand. '_I can't believe I did that._'

He smiled the smile she had grown to love and then reached over and hissed her on the forehead, he had grown a lot taller in the past few months. Then he pulled her in for a hug.

"Happy Valentines Day," he whispered in her ear.

She nuzzled him affectionately and murmured, "You to Daisuke-kun." She felt him get a little warm before he pushed her away, bushing like there was no tomorrow.

"Um I really have to go. I'll see you at school on Monday, if not sooner!" he said before he darted off in the woods, "And thanks for the brownies!"

Riku hesitated as she watched him run away. This whole day she had felt bad, now she was as dirty as dirty could be, she learned that she couldn't cook, avoided her boyfriend for most of the day, and felt horrible because she had biked from her home to the park in just ten minutes.

'_You know. It wasn't such a bad day after all,'_ She thought happily walking to her bike; her hand brushing against her forehead.

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A/N: Horrible attempt to write fluff. I'm really not good at romance and now I feel all weird. o. But hey… it's the trying that counts. And there is Daisuke and Riku! Yes there was some Hiwitari and Daisuke things in there, just because I am not a fan doesn't mean I am blind to their relationship. Though I am more of a Risa/Satoshi fan. *gets hit by tomatoes* Hey! Risa isn't as bad as everyone makes her out to be, she's just a *tad* annoying at times, she really cares about Riku.

Cat shaped clocks ^-^, I had one before, rather my Korean aunt, so don't think that was too random X_X.

I know, overexaggerated bad cooking. It sort of models after my first cooking experience. For chemistry we had to make brownies (yes for Chemistry) and I almost made a lot of mistakes, luckily I had help. Some where… not as fortunate *shudders*. I read many fics about cooking but no one was ever a bad cooker so I thought, hey why not? Hoorah for bad bakers! Store bought consumables all the way! 

I felt this story was a little rushed but I just didn't know how to transition well. So not good at fluffy stories. *Goes off to write an angst*

Forever Riku!


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